94.8ZM Whangarei (originally known as 93ZM) is a

hit music ''Hit Music'' was a weekly British chart newsletter; sister publication to ''Music Week''. ''Hit Music'' existed for almost nine years, supplying the official UK music charts (as compiled by Gallup and later OCC/CIN). The founding editors were ...

radio station in Whangarei, New Zealand. It is a station of the ZM network, and is owned and operated by

New Zealand Media and Entertainment New Zealand Media and Entertainment (abbreviated NZME) is a New Zealand newspaper, radio and digital media business. It was launched in 2014 as the formal merger of the New Zealand division of APN News & Media, APN New Zealand; The Radio Netw ...

History

ZM was first started in the Northland town of Whangarei in 1995 by

Radio New Zealand Radio New Zealand ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa), commonly known as Radio NZ or simply RNZ, is a New Zealand public-service radio broadcaster and Crown entity that was established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news and c ...

broadcasting on 93.1 MHz as 93ZM. At the time local ZM stations were operating in Wellington as 91ZM Wellington and Christchurch as 91ZM Christchurch. A ZM station did previously exist in Auckland as 1ZM but this station became the very first

Classic Hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...

station in 1987. In July 1996 the

New Zealand Government , background_color = #012169 , image = New Zealand Government wordmark.svg , image_size=250px , date_established = , country = New Zealand , leader_title = Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern , appointed = Governor-General , main_organ = , ...

sold off the commercial arm of

, which included, among other things, the ZM stations. The new owner was

The Radio Network New Zealand Media and Entertainment (abbreviated NZME) is a New Zealand newspaper, radio and digital media business. It was launched in 2014 as the formal merger of the New Zealand division of APN News & Media, APN New Zealand; The Radio Ne ...

, a subsidiary of

APN News & Media Here, There & Everywhere (HT&E), formerly known as APN News & Media, is an Australian media company. Divisions include broadcast radio and Out-of-home advertising. The company previously had assets in New Zealand, and previously owned Adshel ...

and

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

, which operated as a division of the

Australian Radio Network ARN is a group of commercial radio stations around Australia. It includes the Pure Gold, KIIS Network, CADA, ARN Regional and iHeartRadio brands. The company operates the ARN News service in Australia, which uses international correspondents ...

. In 1997 new owner

began expanding the ZM brand to other markets, a new local station was established in Auckland as 91ZM Auckland (creating a return to the Auckland market). Networked ZM stations were also introduced from 1996 onwards. In 1997 93ZM became a network station with programming originating from the 91ZM Auckland studios and Auckland announcers producing pre-recorded local voice breaks to a Whangarei audience, some announcers from 93ZM were relocated to Auckland. The breakfast show on 93ZM originally remained local but in 1998 announcers Jaala Dyer and Sandy Antipas were moved to Hamilton to produce a local breakfast for 89.8ZM Waikato with the show networked back to Whangarei. In 2000 ZM switched to a single network feed and the Waikato-based breakfast show was discontinued. From 2000 onwards 93ZM heard the same Auckland based announcers but the local voice breaks were dropped in favour of single nationwide voicebreaks in all markets. At this point the announcers simply called the station ''ZM''. In 2005 93ZM moved from 93.1 to 93.2 MHz and in 2006 93ZM traded places on the Northland radio dial with Radio Hauraki 93ZM shifted to 95.1 MHz and Hauraki took over ZM's vacated 93.2 MHz frequency. On air the station was now known as 95.1ZM. In 2010 ZM in Whangarei moved to 94.8 MHz as part of the government move to re-align radio frequencies around New Zealand.

Past Local Programming

*Breakfast 6 am–10 am **1995–1998: Jaala Dyer **1995–1998: Sandy Antipas **1997–1998: Dave Smart **1998-1999: ''Networked from Hamilton'' **2000 onwards: ''Networked from Auckland/Wellington'' *Daytime 10 am–3 pm **1995-1996: Mike Chapman **1996-1997: Jason Winstanley **1997: Andrew Szusterman **1997 onwards: ''Networked from Auckland'' *Drive 3 pm–7 pm **1995-1996: Trudi McRae **1996–1997: Dave Smart **1997 onwards: ''Networked from Auckland'' *Nights 7 pm–Midnight: **1995–1997: Dallas Gurney **1997 onwards: ''Networked from Auckland''

References

{{Radio in New Zealand Whangarei, ZM Mass media in Whangārei